University, Associate Professor Agree to Settlement

SPRINGFIELD (AP) - Missouri State University will pay a former associate professor and registered sex offender a settlement of more than $150,000. The school's Board of Trustees unanimously approved the settlement for Eugene Michael Hendrix yesterday. It calls for the payment of his $55,000 salary for three years, plus money promised him to teach summer school and up to $10,000 for medical expenses. Hendrix had taught biomedical sciences at Missouri State since 1995. He pleaded guilty in Ohio in 1983 to raping a 9-year-old Cincinnati boy and served three and a-half years in prison. The school publicly acknowledged his past on April Third, after a student asked parents at the university how they felt about "having a sex offender on campus." Missouri State first reassigned Hendrix, then put him on administrative leave when information arose that he had contact with children and did not comply with sex offender registry rules.